


Gentle thunder

by diet_affection



Series: Writings from tumblr [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It, Hugs, Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Post S6, Season six fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 07:03:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16012763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diet_affection/pseuds/diet_affection
Summary: They've just lost one home. They're on their way to another. Lance reflects on belonging and Keith helps him find an answer.





	Gentle thunder

**Author's Note:**

> Reupload from my [tumblr (nsfw)](https://keith-in-shibari.tumblr.com)

There was a taste of thunder in the air. In the horizon, dark tendrils of rain were dancing across the landscape. Lance pulled his jacket tighter against the morning chill, feeling lack of sleep like a heaviness behind his eyes. He’d never minded sleeping in his lion before; he’d done it plenty on longer missions. But it was different now.

It was their first day of travel. Their first regular day without the castle ship – without their home. But they were also heading home, to Earth. Both places he’d grown to love, to feel safe and familiar in. Places to belong too. He was such a sentimental mess - feeling homesick for two places now, and feeling guilty about them both.

The corners of his eyes were stinging in the cold, crisp air when a hand landed on his shoulder. He didn’t turn around. He focused on breathing, on damming up the tears before they spilled, as he waited for the hand to squeeze, once, before falling away.

It didn’t.

Instead, it hesitantly pulled him backwards against the person behind him, in what could only be described as a hug; despite how awkward and stiff it was. Hands were at his shoulders, too shy to stray. But a head was resting against the side of his own, and a steady heartbeat could be felt against his back.

Warm, Lance thought. Then, another word followed. Safe.

Sniffling slightly, he turned his head a fraction. The movement made dark locks of hair tickle against his cheek, and his brain finally processed the faint scent. It smelled of yesterday’s campfire and of cheap hair care products, of natural sweat and a hint of something metallic.

His heart thumped in his chest with the realization.

“This is the stiffest hug I’ve ever gotten, mullet,” he whispered, the words slipping past his lips in a rush to get his feet back on the ground, his heart back in his chest.

Keith immediately began to pull back.

“Sorry, I –“

He stopped at the feel of Lance’s hands tightening around his, tugging them down to wrap around him.

“No, it’s… it’s a good hug.”

“Really?”

Lance felt a smile tug at his lips at Keith’s sceptic but hopeful tone.

“Could be even better if you’d let me turn around.”

For a while there was only breathing, and then Keith was shifting nervously behind him, mumbling in an unsure voice.

“Nothing’s stopping you.”

The confident words didn’t match his tone, but Lance took the consent for what it was. Keith’s arms loosened around him as he turned, and were quick to pull him back in – maybe to avoid having to meet his eyes. The tightness of which he was pulled into the other’s chest squeezed the air out of his lungs, and he coughed a bit, laughing quietly.

“Sorry,” Keith said gruffly.

“S’all good.”

“…I don’t know much about hugs but, aren’t you supposed to do something too?”

Lance blinked. He’d been standing straight, hands trapped between their chests, letting Keith wrap around him on his own. Somehow, even this was overwhelming.

“You’re right,” Lance sighed, hiding the way his pulse was too rapid, “As a verified Hug Master, I am ashamed of my performance.”

“Shut up and hug me,” Keith mumbled darkly.

“Aye, aye.”

Lifting his arms, he slowly let them pass over the other’s shoulders. He let one hand fall to a rest at his neck, the other drape across his back. Underneath the t-shirt that was all this warm-blooded heathen was wearing, he could feel a quiet strength; of muscles ready to explode with danger and energy at a second’s notice. Now they were resting, choosing to touch softly instead of hurting. An echo of earlier was singing through Lance’s veins.

Safe, safe, safe.

Home.

Lance felt the dam from earlier burst, but it wasn’t sorrow that spilled. It was warmth; a frantic fondness that burned through him and made him pull closer with a shaky huff. Closing his eyes and letting himself fall, he buried his nose deep in the scent of the other’s hair. Something that might have been a shiver made Keith shift around him. Then his voice was in his ear, breath tickling against him.

“I missed you. When I was away.”

Lance smiled into his neck.

“We missed you too, buddy.”

“No, I mean … I missed you.”

The repeated words carried a weight that only confused him at first. Then, it clicked.

“Oh…”, he whispered, swallowing through his dry throat.

“Me too, Keith.”

“It was so long… So long – you know what’s funny?”

Lance turned his head, looking up at Keith from the snugness of his shoulder.

“No?”

“I couldn’t remember why you used to annoy me.”

Lance’s eyes widened, his cheeks reddening. He spluttered a bit, offence and delight overworking his brain with their battle.

“Keith –“, he managed to say.

“Don’t say anything,” Keith murmured. “Just… stay here a bit.”

Lifting his head, Lance felt his face soften unconsciously, the fondness an instinctive emotion.

“I will.”

Their eyes met, at last. Keith’s seemed gray and stormy like the distant rainclouds, carrying that same promise of something to come. Something heavy and heat-filled, that would tear open the sky and shift the ground beneath him. Lance trembled, and let it swallow him.

He realized then that his memory was failing him too. Because he was having trouble recalling a time when he hadn’t been in love with this boy of thunder and kindness.

**Author's Note:**

> Reupload from my [My tumblr (nsfw)](https://keith-in-shibari.tumblr.com)


End file.
